Roll Cam: How to Insult Every Camera Operator on Earth with One Tripod Having a Midlife Crisis on Kickstarter

Expensive fellow filmmakers, digicam operators, and anybody with functioning eyeballs, we have to speak concerning the “Roll Cam Digital camera Man” – the self-proclaimed “World’s First Robotic Digital camera Man” that’s at present terrorizing Kickstarter with the audacity of a thousand influencers. As a result of apparently, slapping the phrase “robotic” on a tripod with wheels makes it the cinematic equal of C-3PO wielding an Alexa Mini.Let’s lower by means of the advertising and marketing nonsense sooner than a poorly executed whip pan. The Roll Cam is actually a motorized tripod base on wheels. That’s it. That’s the revolutionary expertise that’s supposedly going to interchange precise human digicam operators. It’s like calling a procuring cart a “private transportation robotic” – technically cellular, positive, however let’s not get carried away.What it really is: a tripod having an id crisisThe machine makes use of primary pc imaginative and prescient to trace a topic and comply with them round at a whopping 8 km/h or 5 mph (as a result of nothing says “cinematic” just like the pace of a leisurely mall walker). It’s bought LiDAR for distance monitoring, which is admittedly extra subtle than your common furnishings dolly, however calling this contraption a “digicam man” is like calling a golf cart a Formulation 1 race automotive.Sure, that’s from their precise advertising and marketing on Kickstarter. GIF credit score: Roll Cam on KickstarterThe advertising and marketing masterclass in delusionThe advertising and marketing copy reads prefer it was written by somebody who discovered about filmmaking from TikTok tutorials. “You don’t want to rent a digicam man anymore!” they proclaim, apparently unaware that digicam operators do barely extra than simply… exist in the identical normal neighborhood because the expertise.Actual digicam operators:Body photographs with creative intentAnticipate motion and movementAdjust focus pulls in real-timeCollaborate on shot compositionUnderstand lighting and exposureActually know what they’re doingThe Roll Cam:Follows you round like a misplaced puppyMaintains a hard and fast distance (revolutionary!)Shoots solely low angle photographs from hip degree (how flattering!)Often bumps into issues (most likely)It’s like evaluating a participant piano to Rachmaninoff. Positive, they each make music, however one has soul and the opposite simply mechanically reproduces notes.The promotional supplies are a masterpiece of unintentional comedy. Watching this wheeled tripod trundle throughout a car parking zone whereas the creators breathlessly clarify its “AI-powered monitoring capabilities” is like watching somebody attempt to promote you a “sensible” rock as a result of it stays precisely the place you set it.The demo footage reveals the Roll Cam following topics with all of the grace and fluidity of a procuring cart with a damaged wheel. The “clean, dynamic photographs” they promise look about as cinematic as safety digicam footage from a comfort retailer. If that is the way forward for cinematography, then I’m investing closely in steadicam operators.Who really wants this?To be honest, there is likely to be official use circumstances for a cellular tripod platform. Actual property brokers doing property walkthroughs, health instructors recording exercise movies, or YouTubers who’ve run out of mates keen to carry their telephones. However let’s name it what it’s: a comfort instrument for content material creators, not a alternative for skilled digicam work.The Roll Cam is ideal if you need your movies to appear to be they have been shot by a robotic. Sadly, that’s precisely what they’ll appear to be – mechanical, predictable, and devoid of the human contact that makes cinematography an artwork type.420 backers for “Roll Cam Digital camera Man” on Kickstarter. Undecided what to say about that. Screenshot from their Kickstarter web page. Actual skilled digicam operators aren’t tripods on wheelsHere’s the factor that the Roll Cam creators don’t appear to know: skilled digicam operators aren’t simply cellular tripods with opposable thumbs. They’re storytellers, artists, and technical consultants who deliver a long time of expertise to each body. They perceive composition, pacing, and the refined artwork of visible narrative.A robotic tripod can comply with you round, positive. However can it anticipate the proper second to push in for an emotional close-up? Can it instinctively know when to interrupt the 180-degree rule for dramatic impact? Can it collaborate with administrators to appreciate their imaginative and prescient? Can it seize a beer with the crew after wrap?The reply to all of those is a powerful “no,” except they’ve additionally invented robotic beer-drinking capabilities (which, frankly, could be extra spectacular than their present providing).That is how Roll Cam is marketed on Kickstarter – put in opposition to a Steadicam operator. Apparently it’s “troublesome to make sure stability for lengthy distance motion” if you use a Steadicam. I stay up for seeing the “Roll Cam” stroll some stairs or carry something heavier than a can of beer. Screenshot from Roll Cam’s Kickstarter marketing campaign. The “NASA expertise”On the Kickstarter web page, Roll Cam says their engineers have expertise from many corporations, together with “creating software program for NASA Artemis moon base program”. Ah sure, NASA expertise. That definitely explains why we haven’t had anybody again on the moon since 1972 – they’ve been too busy engaged on revolutionary wheel expertise. One can solely think about the NASA briefings: “Neglect Mars rovers, what we actually want is a tripod that may comply with influencers round parking heaps.” It’s reassuring to know that a long time of aerospace engineering experience have culminated in… this. Houston, we now have an issue, and it’s rolling round at 5 mph asking to be referred to as a “digicam man.”The verdictThe Roll Cam isn’t the “World’s First Robotic Digital camera Man” – it’s the world’s first motorized tripod with delusions of grandeur. It’s a instrument which may have its place within the content material creator ecosystem, but it surely’s about as more likely to exchange skilled digicam operators as a calculator is to interchange mathematicians.For the worth they’re asking ($279 on Kickstarter), you possibly can lease an actual digicam operator for half a day and get footage that doesn’t appear to be it was shot by a confused Roomba. Or higher but, make investments that cash in really studying cinematography – you already know, the artwork type that entails extra than simply “level digicam at factor and comply with it round.”So right here’s to the Roll Cam: the little tripod that might… comply with you round a car parking zone at strolling pace when you fake it’s revolutionizing cinema. Might your wheels keep spherical and your monitoring algorithm barely much less confused than your advertising and marketing division.The writer is a working digicam operator and DP who has efficiently averted being changed by family home equipment since 2007.What’s your tackle “Roll Cam”? Pontificate within the feedback beneath. I encourage you to be brutally sincere.